North Korea claims it tested a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday, defying international treaties and alarming observers and world leaders with its blatant provocation.

Even though there are widespread doubts that this is actually a hydrogen bomb as claimed by Pyongyang, the United Nations Security Council met on Wednesday to discuss taking "strong action" against the country.

But years of sanctions have not deterred North Korea from continuing its nuclear program, so could the United States military step in to stop it?

Experts suggested one option: The U.S. could bomb North Korea's nuclear facilities in a series of precision strikes, which wouldn't be hard to carry out. But, they warned, the war that would likely erupt after a bombing run could be catastrophic.

"The problem is the North Koreans could shatter a good part of Seoul," Carla Robbins, a senior fellow studying the North Korean nuclear program at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Mashable. "That's always been a pretty big deterrent."

North Korean missiles don't have the range to hit the U.S., but the nation has more than enough firepower to wreak havoc on a good part of South Korea, a U.S. ally. The country's missiles could also hit U.S. bases in South Korea and Japan.

Those missiles aren't usually equipped with nuclear warheads, but they could be, Robert Manning, a senior fellow focusing on international security at The Atlantic Council, told Mashable.

And while North Korea's nuclear warheads couldn't fly from there to mainland America, Robbins pointed out that there are other ways of detonating a nuclear bomb. North Koreans could send a nuke to the U.S. inside a ship or aboard a plane.

None of these scenarios are likely, but experts said the potential risks of war with North Korea seem to far outweigh any benefits.

"Nobody wants to admit this, but there's kind of a state of mutual deterrence between the U.S. and North Korea," Manning said.

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